getting organized

i was reading about 5 qualities to look for in selecting leaders for disciple-making training and they were: (1) fight and drive, (2) ability to spot and recruit achievers, (3) stability, (4) organizational ability, and (5) judgment and creativity.

i read on.

That chapter listed some traits to look for in a person we ought to invest our time in for disciple-making: (1) reliable, (2) resourceful, (3) adaptable, (4) enthusiastic, (5) knows how to work, (6) alert, (7) has initiative, and (8) confident.

As i read all that, i wasn’t thinking so much about the kind of disciple i hope to make for Christ, but rather…i was reflecting on whether i even possess all these traits. i mean, if i don’t even have these traits, who am i to look for someone like that to disciple? (-_-)” Sadly, i don’t think i do…so much to work on myself, and i pray for the discipline to do so and start right now.

Organization
by Don Rosenberger

There may be nothing wrong with you,
The way you live, the work you do,
But i can very plainly see
Exactly what is wrong with me.
It isn’t that i’m indolent
Or dodging duty by intent;
i work as hard as anyone,
And yet i get so little done.
The morning goes, the noon is here,
And all around me, i regret,
Are things i haven’t finished yet.
If i could just get organized!
i oftentimes have realized
Not all that matters is the man;
The man must also have a plan.

With you, there may be nothing wrong,
But here’s my trouble right along;
i do the things that don’t amount
To very much, of no account,
That really seem important though
And let a lot of matters go.
i nibble this, i nibble that,
But i never finish what i’m at.
And yet i get so little done,
i’d do so much you’d be surprised,
If i could just get organized!

How timely! i read this in the afternoon and Pa gave ma a huge organizer from Barclays this evening. i get the message.

i’ve got 5 organizers now. anybody needs one?

a worker approved by God

2 Timothy 2:14-26 says, “Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honourable use, some for dishonourable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his oponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”

i was feeling so discouraged by what happened this afternoon. Giving up planning the lessons crossed my mind, but the Lord knows and understands my heart and its hurts, and He faithfully used friends around me to stop me from heading in that direction.

Thank you, for sharing God’s Word with me…you’re right – there is only 1 encouragement worthy enough to overcome such things…abiding in His Word, will help me get over this, i’m sure (:

last day of Biblical Archaeology class

Thank God for seeing us through Biblical Archaeology class! It’s been an exciting learning experience with Dr Scott Carroll and a wonderful time of fellowship with fellow brethren from different churches. It was also good seeing classmates from my previous Systematic Theology III class (:

We had a great class lunch at some restaurant at SP this afternoon and some of us are looking forward to meeting again in a couple of months’ time for our next class on Systematic Theology I (: But before that…we have to pray real hard and look to the Lord for wisdom, creativity, discipline and proper time management as we spend the next three months working on our assignments!

Gwyn the scribe (:

Today was my turn to copy a portion of the Latin Vulgate in the candle-lit room, and i must say, it really wasn’t easy at all! On the first day of Bible Archaeology class, we were told to take turns each day to complete copying the Book of Mark. However, we realised we haven’t been copying it right the past week and had to start from scratch today…and we’re only left with 4 days! i seriously doubt we’ll be able to copy the entire Book of Mark; we ought to be glad if we are done with Chapter 1.

i’m sure many would think, “What’s so difficult about copying?”. Well, first of all, we’re copying a text in a language that’s foreign to us and it’s even harder to make out the words with all that abbreviations the scribes used while copying in the past. Secondly, we have to copy without our present-day flouroscent light, but do it under the dim lighting of a candle instead. It was really hard to make out those heavily-abbreviated Latin words in a candle-lit room without any windows! Another thing that made it difficult to copy was how we had to check the words against the copy of Latin Vulgate we got online, and each time we do that, it means we look away from where we were copying…and as a result, we very often lost track of where we were copying up to!

After almost an hour in that room, i couldn’t even complete copying the first chapter…and i had to stop because i was beginning to have a headache! =/ However, i thank God for the experience of going through what the scribes went through in the past to make precious copies of the Word of God, before the advent of printing. It certainly wasn’t easy, and we must be thankful for the printed Bible we hold in our hands today.

As i left the room and was walking to the carpark this afternoon, i heaved a sigh of relief and exclaimed to God, “Thank you, God, for the Bible i have today – in a language i can read! So glad i don’t have to read a Latin Bible to know what You have to say. Thank You for the invention of the press too, so that i don’t have to be copying out my own copy of the Bible!”

an a cappella evening (:

The human vocal system is truly an amazing creation of God and i just marvel at how music can sound so beautiful without a single piece of man-made instrument to complement it! (: i’ve always loved being at Agapella’s gigs but tonight, i got to enjoy an evening of A cappella music by 6 different groups, compliments of Stanley (:

goodbye bird poop

i couldn’t stand it anymore! After i returned from Thailand last month, i noticed that the pigeons were making my window sill their toilet. i went over to Darrell’s room and checked if it was the same with his and NO – his window sill was so clean! The next few days, i also woke up to the sounds of little bird movements outside my perpetually-shut windows and had to give my window a ‘bang’ to shoo the silly bird away each time.

i’ve been trying to open my windows in the mornings to air my room, but because of the bird poop, i was reluctant. Then…an idea struck me, and today, i got down to it

After i got back from class today, i started cleaning the outside of my windows and scrubbed real hard to remove those bird droppings. i also found some abandoned blocks of styrofoam at the mail box, which i painstakingly sliced with a kitchen knife…and this is how my window looks now!

Teeheehee, like Darrell and Mommy say, only time will tell if this works…and Darrell says to pray hard it does or clean up those toothpicks if otherwise…but somehow, i’m quite confident it will! *bleah*

Biblical archaeology (:

The studying has begun again! i thank God for the opportunity to embark on this course on Biblical archaeology, led by Dr Scott Carroll, who brought along with him a whole lot of artifacts! It’s only the first day of class today, and my perspectives of archaeology and the Bible has been changed! i also never knew archaeology could be this fun, interesting and definitely, exciting! (:

So far, i’ve learnt that archaeology is not treasure hunting; archaeology is carefully working through ancient remains, and painstakingly putting together a puzzle to tell us about the ancient world and past civilisations! i believe that over the next two weeks, our class will have a taste of it, albeit small, through working on pieces of jigsaw puzzles. Our prof didn’t say, but i already suspect those pieces don’t even make up a complete puzzle, and they may even be from more than just one puzzle! tee hee hee (:

Today’s class helped us realize a few important points:

1. Nothing is not impt in Scripture! If it’s been mentioned, there must be a significance.
2. Absence of evidence, is not evidence of absence! Dr Scott shared that in 1978, a group of students had to count the number of archaeological sites, and out of those they managed to count, only under 1% had been excavated!!! Therefore, should someone come up with evidence to undermine our faith, we can rest assure, there are probably even more evidence to support our faith
3. Faith and reason are wedged together. i know because i believe, i believe because i know! (:

i’m sure this module would be an exciting one! Looking forward to learning what God has in store for our class of 16 students!

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Christmas in Singapore

Thank God for the opportunity to celebrate Christmas with my Thai brothers / sisters-in-Christ in Chiangmai, and now, with my family and friends in Singapore! (: Since returning from Thailand, December’s been packed with gatherings, meet-ups and other wonderful activities (: i think my home must have broken its monthly record for the number of guests we’ve had over! My parents, especially Mommy are really amazingly hospitable people to be able to tolerate Darrell and i having friends over almost everyday! Like i told Mommy, her hospitality to others is one thing i thank God for with all my heart and definitely one thing i desire to learn from her, and put to practice, should the Lord give me a home of my own. God-willing, should He give my hand to a godly young man in marriage, i sure hope he’ll be hospitable and makes our home like my parents have – one with its door ever lovingly open to others (:

24 December 2009
After Christmas Eve Praise Service, we went caroling to 4 homes. Thank God for the love and hospitality of those who opened their homes to us. It was a great time of singing carols, fun, good food and fellowship (: Most of the time it was only Darrell and i who went caroling since my parents would have to stay home to prepare / clear-up if we open our home to carolers, so i was really glad to have Mommy come along with us this year! We went home-to-home, all the way till 3am on Christmas morning (:

26 December 2009
YAF had our last meeting for the year this evening. The Young Adults came over to our home for Thanksgiving and Dinner Fellowship. We had lots of pizza and fruits too – dipped in chocolate, of course Thank God for the meaningful time of prayer and sharing how the Lord has been good to us the past year, and our prayers for 2010, too (:

27 December 2009
One year ago, i was apprehensive about teaching this class for fear of rejection and subjection to comparison with the previous teacher. Today, as Shelia and i stood up there to help give out prizes to our class’ young ladies, i was filled with gratitude to God for this group of young ladies and i thank God for helping me decide to teach them, for i must say, it’s been worth every bit of our time and effort investing in the lives of these young ladies. It’s been a joy teaching them, and learning with them, and i pray they’ll continue to grow to become young women after God’s own heart!

i thank God too, for the time this evening with fellow believers from Singapore Life Church. It was really kind of them to invite Cynthia and me to their post-missions meeting. i was encouraged listening to them share how the Lord had used them on their trip, and how they’ve been blessed by the Lord and His people as well (:

29 December 2009
Praise God for each friend He brought this evening. i had a Thanksgiving and Evangelistic dinner at my home, with the help of Yvonne and Jas (: i’m really thankful to God for their passion and zeal of winning souls to the Lord, and for their willingness to come alongside me to put this dinner together. We tried cooking dinner of aglio olio and oven-baked chicken wings…and thankfully, Erica brought home-made brownies topped up with ice-cream from Nelson and Chenming! God is Jehovah-Jireh, the God Who provides! (:

We watched the movie, “End of the Spear”, followed by a time of sharing our thanksgiving for the year. i really didn’t know how it’d work out, but i thank God for the opportunity and definitely, for courage from above, to share my testimony of salvation and how God has been real and faithful to me in my life. It’s never easy sharing Christ with the people dear to us.

Well, i think i’ve shared more than just about Christmas day itself…but i thought i’d be good to give thanks to the Lord for the different events that He’s allowed to take place this Christmas season (: Without Him, really, this post wouldn’t be in existence

carolling at PPL shipyard

i was still in Thailand when i heard about the opportunity for us to carol at a shipyard in Singapore, and i was extremely excited and looking forward to it. i had heard that we would be singing Christmas carols to 2,000 Thai/Burmese/Chinese foreign workers. i had thought about how wonderful, and what a privilege it was, to reach the Thai people in my community.

Well, things didn’t turn out the way i thought it would. We didn’t get to sing as many carols as we thought we could, we didn’t get to share anything about the Reason for the season…and neither did we get to distribute tracts to the workers.

However, i thank God for the opportunity to be there this afternoon, singing a few Christmas carols in Thai/Chinese/Burmese, together with our brethren from Evangel BPC and the Burmese Fellowship. We may not have accomplished what we had hoped to do, but i believe that the little that we’ve done today can be used of God in a mighty way…even if it’s in the life of just ONE soul who heard us sing a Christmas carol in his language.